Gemini Mulls London Base Amid Relentless US Pressure

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss met with the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England to discuss a potential Gemini move to London.

In addition to London, the twins are exploring options to expand Gemini’s business to Hong Kong and Dubai, among others.

Gemini Founders Want to Invest Despite Damning Report

The exchange will not move away from the United States but will explore overseas expansion amid U.S. hostility.

Cameron Winklevoss said,

“There are so many headwinds right now in the U.S. it’s hard to get anything done there. And so, in order to keep building our business and invest in hiring, we have to look elsewhere.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) chairman Gary Gensler has dismissed claims that U.S. securities law does not cover crypto.

The regulator recently rejected a request from Gemini rival Coinbase to develop new rules. Congressional subcommittees want to bypass expected bipartisan deadlocks on new bills by amending existing laws.

Gemini instituted a third round of layoffs as it struggles to recover its Earn customers’ money from Genesis Global Capital. The Winklevoss brothers started Gemini in 2015 after first hearing about Bitcoin in Ibiza.

Despite their enthusiasm, the twins have expressed reservations about the U.K. outlook after a recent government report compared unbacked crypto trading to gambling. 

The upcoming Financial Services and Markets Bill will provide exchanges with a clearer path to regulation. The bill must pass the House of Lords before Royal Assent declares it law. Crypto firms will then have a window in which to comply.

Winklevoss Twins Could View U.K. Regulators as Allies

Conversely, the twins may find government allies after MPs accused regulators of painting Britain as hostile to entrepreneurs. 

The U.K. FCA recently rejected multiple crypto firms for poor risk management, while competition authorities blocked Microsoft’s takeover of gaming company Activision Blizzard.

The Bank of England’s (BoE) Prudential Regulatory Authority recently implied it would reject neobank Revolut’s banking license application amid accounting discrepancies.

BoE governor Andrew Bailey said this week the central bank has a lot of “big lessons” to learn as April’s headline inflation came in 0.3% higher than their 8.4% forecast.

Core inflation, excluding food and energy, jumped from 6.2% to 6.8%, suggesting that the central bank will need to increase interest rates further. 

The bank implicitly canceled its recession prediction after U.K.’s real income stabilized to pre-pandemic levels. Higher real income suggests living standards for U.K. citizens are rising from a recent collapse. 

Audit firm EY recently said the U.K. economy would flatline in the first half of 2023 but start growing in the summer as headline inflation benefits from falling food and energy prices. 

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